


Call of the Wisps Bloopers

by MewMewPsychic



Category: Ori and the Blind Forest, Ori and the Will of the Wisps
Genre: Black Comedy?, Dying in dumb ways, Dying in tragic ways, Mistakes were made, failure - Freeform, lots of failure
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23815105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MewMewPsychic/pseuds/MewMewPsychic
Summary: Ori faceplant during his adventure in Niwen. A lot.All of the various ways he (and the other main characters) of Call of the Wisps can fail their quest.Hey, since Call of the Wisps is not in game form, gonna emulate somehow the fact that the common player die literally hundred of times per playthrough!
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	1. Call of the Wisps: Arrival Bloopers

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter 1 blooper scenes for Call of the Wisps.
> 
> Those scenes will make little sense unless you have read the chapter.

**=/=CALL OF THE VOID=\=**

**Adventure doesn't scare Ori!... hey, where are you going?! Come back!**

Ori groaned as his eyes fluttered open. For a moment, as memories flowed through the haze of his mind, he pondered if he just had a nightmare. The idea of him and Ku flying over what seemed like an endless expanse of water only for a sudden storm to strike and send them falling into a distant land seemed not unlike the many, many nightmares that had unfortunately haunted his nights since the Blindness.

Unfortunately, as a burning and very familiar sensation suddenly shot through every nerve in his body, all the way from his antennas all the way to the very tip of his tail, he found himself realizing it had unfortunately been very real. Mostly because he had not been in such intense, consistent pain since the Blindness.

The kind of pain you only experienced when your entire body had been thrown around like a ragdoll and smashed into the ground at high speed.

Immediately, his emotions went into overdrive. Ku! Yali! Yuki! He panicked. His sister! His friends! They are gone! Lost! He is lost too!

Wait. They crossed some body of water to get here. The young spirit snapped his fingers. Of course! He’ll go get help! Surely, that will be a good thing!

… he is totally not wanting to go back just to get comfort from Naru or Sein. He begged his conscience to stop glaring angrily at him. He’s not being a childish coward. He’s not doing this because he want to curl up in his bed and whimper for the next five days after everything that occurred. Fetching Naru and Gumo will totally help here.

Looking around, he noticed the shores and the big body of water ahead. Okay, good. He know where he came from. He just got to-

The spirit flinched and whimpered for a moment. Oh right, he just slammed into the ground from a great height. He’s likely a bit weakened. Still, a little swim shouldn’t be too hard, right? Beside, the water might soothe his… well, everything. Everything was hurting.

He checked himself for a moment. No limbs bent the wrong way, his fingers wiggle when he will to, his tail is moving correctly… yep, he’s not seriously injured and good to go.

Alright then. “Ku! I’ll get help!” he called, just in case she and the others were nearby. No answer? Oh well.

Trying not to think too hard on that, Ori leaped into the water. The first thing that surprised him were the strong currents. The water was forming rather strong waves. It also felt and tasted a bit… saltier? It was odd. Still, as his body entered the water, he straightened himself and used his arms and legs to push himself through. Briefly, he went underwater and…

Whoa! He never saw a river or a lake with fish or underwater plants like these! Check out the colors! It’s amazing!

What an odd lake.

He surfaced and begun to swim along the surface. Yep, just gotta get help. Just gotta get help and then Ku, Yuki, and the others will be rescued. Nothing more to it.

…

Then minutes turned to hours and Ori noticed something abnormal. How long had he been swimming? His limbs were starting to ache a bit and there was absolutely no sign of shores anywhere. In fact, looking back, he noticed the shores he had come from looked… very distant? Like, like when he was atop one of Nibel’s highest peaks and trying to see his house from there?

How long and how fast had they been flying that night, anyway?

He mentally shrugged and kept swimming. Surely he’ll get home soon, right? … right?

As the sun begun to rise over the horizon, it occurred to Ori that he had been swimming for an awful long time and that trying to fight the strong waves was a lot harder than he thought. Still no sign of his home. Maybe he should head back?

He looked back and noticed that the shores were looking awfully, awfully far. He was about to think about this but then, his head slipped beneath the surface and an unwelcome gulp of salty water forced him to flail his limbs as to put himself back over the surface. Limbs which were seriously starting to hurt by now.

He coughed, panting from exhaustion. Wait, from exhaustion? He had just wanted a good breath after… after... 

His body wasn’t what swam anymore, so was his mind. How much distance had they crossed in that flight, anyway? Had it truly been that far?

… apparently, it truly had been that far.

“M-maybe I should just go back and look for Ku and the others myself.” he commented to himself aloud.

Those shores look awfully, awfully distant now. His limbs will hurt a lot by the time he makes it back.

Come on, Ori! A little swim won’t kill you! Push the water, kick legs, go forward, go back to-

A strong wave pushed him back, undoing all of his progress. Given how weak he was starting to feel, this offended him. He let out a growl of frustration. A growl that turned to momentary panic as it buried him underwater for a moment. The water tasted awful! And it rushing for his lungs was even more so.

But he was so tired and this time, it took him significant effort to surface. As he coughed out the water, it finally registered to him that he was in danger.

I don’t wanna drown. Ori suddenly thought to himself, realizing that this was actually a possibility.

And in fact, it was then that he finally noticed, truly noticed how far he had pushed himself from any sort of dry land.

That realization caused something to snap. “I don’t wanna drown! I don’t wanna drown! I don’t wanna drown!” he cried loudly, trashing about, trying to push himself toward the shores.

But they were so far and he was so tired! What had he been thinking?!

He hadn’t thought. He had just let his fear control him and he acted impulsively. In the face of danger he had done what he always do: run away.

And now he’s gonna drown because of it. What a joke. He’d laugh at the absurdity of it but he was currently too busy panicking, sobbing, and flailing about.

“Naru! Sein! Help!” He knew deep down that nobody could help but given he was currently in a state of total, complete and utter panic, despair caused him to call even though he knew it would do no good.

He didn’t even think on the irony of going to get help only to need help himself. He was too busy sobbing and trying not to drown.

He doesn’t want to be a tree. He doesn’t want to die again. Even with Sein at full power, she won’t be able to bring him back if he dies in the middle of some huge body of water that stretch nearly beyond the horizon.

Images of the incredible agony he felt as he crawled on that ledge, of the tears of abject despair he had shed that dark day, the same he was currently shedding… and of the memories of Fil and all the other spirits whose Light he had absorbed, containing similar memories.

He doesn’t want to die! He doesn’t want to be a tree!

He tried to call out again but he had slipped beneath the surface, his meager strength failing against the water’s currents. He tried to push himself back up but he was just so tired and feeling weak.

Feeling himself choking from the water, he tried to slam his jaws shut as to not feel that sensation. But as he found himself sinking and sinking and not seeing the bottom, the panic became primal.

His lungs were burning. He couldn’t hold his breath that long, especially not when he was already choking on water. But he didn’t want to drown either. Unfortunately, he needed air and he needed it now. His body actually forced him to open his mouth wide.

Gurgling sounds came from Ori as instead of air, large quantities of salt water came pouring in. His mind spun and it felt like his chest was inflating and trying to tear through his ribs. He couldn’t breathe! He tried but every time, large bubbles just forced themselves out of his body.

It was amazingly painful, far more than any of the injuries he had sustained during the Blindness. The only pain he had felt before that got close to this was…

…

He is drowning. He is dying again.

“I DON’T WANNA DIE PLEASE I DON’T WANNA BE TREE!” he tried to yell out but instead, a muffled out sound came.

His entire body convulsed as he held into his chest with one hand, reaching out as to try and keep swimming but unable to. The entire world grew dark. Darker and darker.

Then, for a moment, he felt like he was somehow lifting himself toward the surface, the world simultaneously impossibly bright and impossibly dark. But that he also wasn’t?

Oh. He is seeing his own Light leave his dying body.

…

Nobody ever saw Ori again or found his Ancestral Tree, lost between lands on the ocean’s floor.

  
  


**Silly spirit, you cannot create Soul Links in Niwen!  
**

He is Ori, savior of Nibel. He has faced the Decay and the Monsters. He has survived where so many others have died. He stood against the darkness and banished it. This isn’t like the Blindness.

  
  
He is older. He is stronger. He is faster. He shall not let his loved ones get hurt again. He shall bring back Ku, Yuki, and Kali back home.

Ori stood up and then, clenched his fists, eyes glowing with power as he gathered his Light. He drew upon all of his energy and then unleashed his power, igniting a Soul Link.  
  
Well, he willed himself to ignite one.  
  
Instead, he wasn’t even halfway through the process of creating one that he felt a sudden unpleasant sensation. It was like air was suddenly refusing to enter his lungs, his heart beating but not managing to pump blood, his arms and legs feeling like lead, his antennas falling flat on his face, and his entire frame giving out.  
  
He didn’t have the Light to ignite it. Collapsing on his knees, the incomplete Soul Link burnt out before his very eyes, the Light dispersing into small sparkles.

He had hoped this wouldn’t happen.

During the Blindness, he had travelled with Sein at his side. While diminished by her separation from her tree body, Sein remained the Light and heart of the Spirit Tree. It was how he had been able to unleash so many advanced spirit techniques despite being a mere child ; Sein had compensated for his incomplete understanding of the finer ways of manipulating Light by sinking her considerable reserves into his body. After all, while the Light he had absorbed from his dead siblings had given him knowledge of a large array of techniques, it hadn’t taught him how to perform them well and efficiently. Unfortunately, many of those moves, it turned out, were rather Light-hungry.

Well, is he Ori or is he not? No way he’s gonna adventure around without the safety net of a Soul Link! Beside, he never struggled to produce these before! He had even made one before he had actually met Sein proper, back then! Yeah, it had taken everything he had but he had done it and now he’s stronger, faster, and better!

He drawn from deeper inside. He’s a spirit! He got more Light than this! Grasping at his Light, he scrounged up for whatever reserves he had beyond the obvious ones. He had plenty of Light to burn, if he’s willing to go the extra mile. All of those Energy Cells and Life Cells he found back in Nibel means he has plenty to use.

He kept grabbing and pouring out. His body shuddered and for a moment, he felt as if needles had pierced his fingers, then his hands, then a deep pain that went all the way to the shoulder and into his chest. His antennas twitched and his fur stood on end. He had never drawn out this much of his Light before and it was actually hurting a bit.

Okay, it is hurting a lot.

Scratch that, he bit down a scream of pain.

Why would it hurt like this? This is just a Soul Link! He can do these easily! He can’t be that drained, right? Beside, if he was truly empty, then nothing would happen, right? Beside, he’s not going on an adventure without at least one Soul Link. No way. Not happening.

He let out a war cry, grabbing and unleashing everything he had. And then, he felt like he had found a sudden surge of Light within him, one that absolutely was more than enough. A large, spherical mass of pure, intense Light, right in his chest. In fact, right inside his beating heart. Yep, that will do nicely.

He unleashed absolutely everything he had and white flames finally flashed into his sight! Victory! He is…

Whoa. Surreal!

He feels… like he’s feeling the air but from farther than just his skin. Like he’s actually becoming the Soul Link itself. Is that normal? He never felt that way before. He also felt oddly out of breath. Not like he was tired, like he had just stopped. He found that oddly, he didn’t need to breathe again and had the feeling it wouldn’t do a thing anyway.

Soul Links are not supposed to do that?

…

He stepped back and then, saw the characteristic flames of a Soul Link rising from the spot on the ground. Excellent! And it’s shining brightly! So brightly that absolutely everything look kind of pitch black monochrome by comparison! Almost as… if… everything… was…

The moon shone impossibly bright from a perfectly black sky devoid of stars or clouds, shining upon a perfect forest of pure black trees over a perfect pure black ground, stretching beyond infinity.

Oh.

This is the Forest beyond Death. He is dead. Again.

“Oops?”

The entombed Light of his species’s dead as well as the divine moon herself collectively facepalmed. Ori killing himself trying to spark a Soul Link. That’s gotta be a new low for our hero.

  


**Metroidvania sequel rule #1: You always lose your upgrades between games. (PAY ATTENTION, ORI!)**

Looking back at the direction he came from, he looked up at the wall and then frowned. The wall was curving, forming a very noticeable inverted L shape. Just trying to climb that wall would not work. Of course, he could very easily just send himself to the top of the wall by gathering his Light into his feet and then using that to propel himself into an explosive Charge Jump. He’s certain his training surely can allow him to do that!

And thus, he stood by the edge and squatted down. Remembering the memories he absorbed from Nir, he gathered his Light reserves into his legs and feet. Then, unleashed it. To be fair, he wasn’t really sure how the Charge Jump really worked and while he did train, he knew that he had yet to fully master it.

Still, he was rewarded with a sudden burst of light, everything being bright for a moment as he shot up like a rocket, throwing dust and small rocks all over the place as he took off. And as he reached the ledge, he landed perfectly on his hooves.

Good! Now he can go back to Tokk with his Keystone!

Well, as soon as he stop being dizzy. He already knew he was low on Light but for a moment, he guessed he had overstimated just how costly the Charge Jump really was. He felt awful, like his entire body was suddenly feeling dead inside and heavy.

He lost his footing and tried to sit down. Rather, he found himself collapsing on his back, letting on an exhausted sigh, the glow of his body now dull and almost grey. How much Light had he used up? He did not know.

Would Tokk be upset if he took a nap before returning? He guessed it didn’t really matter. Not like he had a choice as he immediately blacked out, his body desperate to recover and replace the Light he had just used up.

And so, sleep claimed him.

Surprisingly, he had no nightmares that night. Or maybe he might. He felt like some of his nightmares about being torn apart by monsters did come to him, as he slept. Claws slashing his throat, large fangs digging into his arms and legs, Decay-filled drool splattering over his body, the warm, sticky, unpleasant feeling of his own blood… those unpleasant images and memories might have come to him during the night.

Still, he slept long and hard, with absolutely nothing capable of waking him up. A total deep slumber like only loss of consciousness could bring.

The next morning he tried to wake up. But then, things got very surreal as he realized that somehow, he could not feel his feet or much of anything. He couldn’t see clearly, everything oddly blurry and a simultaneous mix of impossibly bright and dark.

He is looking for… who again? He’s looking for his sister and friends but somehow, he can’t remember. In fact, he realized he didn’t remember his own name. Why would that-

Oh.

He just saw his own still, very messily killed body right underneath. Given his arm is down the cliff, one of his legs is missing, the other has giant chunks missing, and his chest is wide open with all of his ribes broken, he guess he has no body.

He’s dead again. Something must have eaten him during the night. Isn’t he supposed to not want to become something, right now? Without his body to help his Light retain his thoughts and emotions, he just couldn’t remember, his sense of self slipping away.

Oh well.

He went back to sleep.

His Light sighed in a resigned but happy way. At least, there was no pain this time. He passed away peacefully in his sleep.

  


**Damn it Ori, you're a cute fluffy boi, not a legendary warrior of renown!  
**

No. He’s not going to let that monster stalk him and then just cheapshot him when he isn’t looking. He picked up speed and then, dove for the box, grabbing one of the sticks. Then, he slid it against the box’s rough edges in a single, fast motion. He was rewarded with a bright, powerful flame atop the stick.

Gripping it with one hand, Ori turned around, slamming both of his hooves into the ground and coming to a stop, turning around to face the monster. He spreaded his legs the way he had taught when one wanted to fight things and glared angrily at the charging monstrosity.

“You’re NOT stalking me, you big bully!” Ori challenged, snarling as he channelled his fear into pure defiance.

The monster responded with a roar of pure, insane anger of its own, pumping its paws into the ground in a need to close the distance, sticky drool splattering out of its mouth as it snapped its jaws at him, its eyes burning with murderous intent.

Ori lowered himself a bit, taking control of his shaking body and then, calculating in his own head. And as the monster leaped, letting out a blood-curdling scream as it went to bite down on him, the spirit kicked into the ground, sending himself to the left to dodge the attack. Unfortunately, it seemed Ori was a bit rustier than he had thought. Or did he just time it wrong?

He didn’t have much time to process it because-PAIN.

Raw, all-consuming PAIN.

His bravado died as he let out a shriek of pain, the monster’s fangs connecting with his chest and belly, finding purchase into his soft skin and tearing at it. He felt the fangs grind against his flesh, trying to dig in, sliding like long knives along his frame and sending red blood, his own, splattering over the ground.

Ori nearly stumbled and doubled over, almost losing grip on his torch as he reached for his bleeding chest with a hand, pressing down on the long, ugly cuts. He trembled a bit, quiet sobs forcing themselves out of himself in spite of his attempt at remaining strong.

He hadn’t missed that from the days of the Blindness. Getting hurt by monsters is never fun.

The good news was, this was a mere glancing hit. The monster had failed to properly grab him in its jaws. Beside, despite the pain, Ori knew he was hardier than he looked. The emergency Light from his Life Cells flowed from his heart, greatly accelerating his healing and causing the flow of blood to slow significantly. It wasn’t pleasant but he’d live.

Now, he need to actually-

Oh.

Ori realized he had been a fool to focus on his own pain like that instead of paying attention as the wolf-like monster took a swing at him while he was distracted. The clawed paw hit him like a sledgehammer, sending his tiny frame flying off the ground like a doll thrown by an angry child. His impromptu and unwilling flight ended as he slammed back-first into the trunk of a tree, cracking its bark and sending new waves of pure agony through Ori’s back.

The young spirit painfully landed on his knees and then fell down on his belly. His nerves were set aflame and he found himself tasting his own blood in his mouth.

Pushing himself back to his hooves, Ori glared at the monster. Okay, he had been careless. He just needed to… to…

Wait, where is his torch?

Oh, it’s over there, right next to the monster. The strength of that last attack caused him to drop it.

That… is not good.

The monster is charging at him. That is also not good. He need something to fight back with. He need that torch!

As the monster came charging, Ori kicked into the ground and broke into a dash. He need to make it! He need to get to the stick!

He expected the monster to try to bite him, this time. And so he lowered himself and dove right under its snapping jaws.

Unfortunately, the monster had anticipated this and also took a swing with its paw again, this time in a slower, thrusting motion. Ori admitted he screamed, shrieking in pain as the massive claws raked his back and sliced through. Hot tears welled in his eyes and he lost his balance as he felt long, bloody trenches being dug into his body.

As the monster came to a stop and spun to face him, the teenage spirit stumbled and rolled down, faceplanting.

“Th-this thing’s pretty tough…” he half-cried, half-mumbled to himself, gritting his teeth and trying to get a grip. Of course it’s tough, it’s a giant freakin’ monster. For a moment, he wondered what business he had trying to take on something like this.

No. No. He can’t give up now.

He grabbed the torch and rose back to his hooves. In spite of the pain, he slammed one hoof down and then let out a cry of defiance, swinging the stick and gripping it, ready to fight.

Most of Ori’s fear momentarily vanished as for a moment, it seemed like the monster was laughing at his display. Had that been laughter? Was that repetitive, rasping sound coming from it a mocking, taunting cackle? His grip on his torch tightened as he felt himself deeply, deeply insulted. Do that monster think his pain and fear are funny?! Does that thing think this is some sort of joke?

“You bastard! Bring it!” He snarled, offended.

Though, midway through his taunt, he pondered if this was a good idea. Running away seemed like a good idea once again, all of a sudden.

The great monster again ran toward him. But this time, as the jaws came snapping, Ori dodged downward rather than to the side or back. He finally managed to also hit the thing. His stick made a satisfying thwack as it slammed into the thing’s jaws. He then moved to follow it up with-PAIN.

PAIN. The thing just stomped on him! Oh goodness that is painful! He can feel it press on his back with all of its weight! And the thing is as heavy as it looks! He can feel, he can hear the pressure on his frame!

He heard something crack. The monster had just broke something. Likely more than just one thing, too.

He couldn’t keep it in. He screamed. He screamed in pure pain. His grip on the stick weakened and he just felt his entire body paralyzed from having been crushed. A sticky, disgusting feeling filled his mouth and spread to his neck. Then, as he felt himself trying to cry from the pain, his mouth instead filled and he found himself coughing and vomitting blood all over the ground.

The monster, that big bully, it was laughing at him! It was laughing at him!

He barely had the time to register it that the thing let go of him… only to backhand him into the sides, sending him rolling away and sending a fresh wave of pain through his entire being.

Even with all of the Life Cells from Nibel, Ori was suddenly and keenly aware that given the monster’s sheer size, strength, and weight, he could likely only take so many hits from it. Already, he could feel his healing slowing, the injuries starting to become more and more serious with each hit.

Unsteadily, he climbed back to his hooves, the world spinning around him, the edges darkening a bit. Just how many hits had he taken from that thing, now? How much more can he take? His chest is a ruin, crushed and sliced open, with long cuts going all the way to his belly. His back felt broken, with long bloody trenches when the thing’s claws had dug in. That last hit had not just given him a new series of impressive bruises but looking down at him revealed that he now had a nice open wound on the sides too.

He was not looking good and he didn’t feel good either.

Also, the stick is again by the thing’s feet. Brillant.

He glanced briefly at the box of sticks to the side. Frankly, maybe go for a new one? Not get close to the big monster if he could help it?

He broke into a dash. Unfortunately, it seemed the monster had either predicted he’d do this or saw him glance at the thing because he wasn’t even halfway to the box that the wolf thing slammed into him with all of its weight, like some deranged furry fiery boulder.

Needless to say, that caused him to lose his footing and fall. And then, the monster followed up by-

Ori screamed.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, his entire body tensing. The pain of his tiny body, Kuro squeezing and choking the life out of him, crushing his rib cage, shattering every bone and driving the broken fragments into his own flesh.

A pain he was experiencing all over again as the wolf-like monster finally managed to catch his frame into his jaws and then bit down with all of the extremely considerable strength a predator of this size had at its disposal. Every fang punctured and pierced his flesh, disgusting saliva making every single strand of his fur feel sticky.

Even worse was the burning sensation of the Decay-infused bite. He could feel the sickly thing pouring into his wounds, painfully pulsating through his twitching, convulsing veins.

Blood, so much blood, all of it his own. He could feel the thing crushing the life out of him and it was just as agonizing as when Kuro had done it. Worse yet, as the monster was a tiny bit weaker and thus, just lacking in strength to be done with it quickly.

The entire world became a blur and he felt his head bounce, his limbs suddenly thrown all over the place as the monster was shaking and crushing the life out of him.

And then, with one final motion, the wolf-like monster slammed Ori’s broken body against the ground. He let out one last whimper, feeling the strength completely leave him. He could not even attempt to shift an antenna. He was completely broken, completely defeated. He couldn’t even look at the monster that had beaten him. All he could do was tremble, slowly bleeding out.

… he didn’t even feel overly offended or angry anymore. If anything, he pondered why he had even bothered.

He guessed that managing to save Nibel got to his head and made him arrogant. He was a complete fool. He was just a kid, some kid who had been very lucky and made it anywhere only because the Spirit Tree had done every hard task for him. Alone, he was nothing and nobody. What did he expect would happen, trying to fight a giant, scary monster?

He saw the figure of the giant monster, standing tall above him with a wicked grin. He couldn’t even clench his eyes shut as to not see what he knew was coming. He kept choking and coughing, hyperventilating and yet, blood continuing to fill his mouth and to pour out of his broken nose.

Then the monster actually bit down. And to his horror, did not go for his artery to finish him off. Rather, he convulsed in pure agony and felt it as the beast just tore out a chunk of his chest out. Then he heard it munch, a bit of white glowing fur stuck in its fangs.

A second bite, this time tearing off a large part of his left leg and opening up his belly finally, to his horror, revealed to him what was happening.

His nerve broke. He was being eaten alive. He was prey to the monster. A mere meal.

He is going to be a tree. He is going to die. What a sick joke. It was supposed to be a nice little flight. This was meant to be the happiest day, Ku finally able to fly. They were going to fly around then come back and his family would throw a party and everybody would have fun and be happy.

He didn’t want this. He never thought it would turn out this way, when he woke up this morning. That they’d fall in Niwen, of all places, and then that he’d die alone in some dark corner, eaten by some monster.

“Pl-please… finish me off first... “ he begged.

The monster closed its jaws around his shoulder and tore out a fresh chunk off of him as an answer, causing the tiny spirit to scream out in renewed agony.

Ori had never, ever pictured that he’d actually want to be a tree. His first death, before being brought back by Sein, had been a traumatic experience and the worst moment of his life bar none. Every single time he had a close call with death, no matter how close, he had always been driven by a desperate desire to avoid dying again and becoming a tree.

As the monster slowly ate him, tearing chunk after chunk off of his broken body and leaving him to sob in a growing pool of blood and Decay-filled slob, Ori discovered that there was indeed a first time for everything.

The one and only time he prayed to actually become a tree, death took its sweet, sweet time to come, the release of rest entombed in wood an agonizingly long distance from Ori’s grasp.


	2. Called Forth: Unknown Land Bloopers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 bloopers! In what wacky ways will Yuki and Kali fail? Surely they won't fail as bad as Ori did?... right?
> 
> ... right?

**=/= CALLED AWAY =\=**

**It’s slime time!**

She saw them disappear into a small burrow. They cannot have gone far. Thankfully, the deep forest where she was had been mostly sheltered from the storm. She closed her eyes and concentrated, pricking up her ears. Her hearing may not be as sharp as an owl’s, but she was trained to hear like one. It was all a part of her training as a Called spirit.

Shuffling of paws...no, too small for a moki. The rustling of leaves accompanied by flapping wigs? Moki can’t fly. They were still underground, right? Yuki lowered her head and squinted her eyes. She followed the sound of muffled squeaking. Her heart froze as she stopped. Razor vines! She had seen them and what they could do. She turned around and saw a glowing yellow slime crawl up a tree. She gagged as she smelled it’s rancid stench; an unholy combination of bison droppings and vomit!

Is this what Decay was? The very thing Kiinae warned her about? This is what she was supposed to fight? She couldn’t stand the stench! What a disgusting thing! Well, no time like the present she guessed.

She lowered herself, eyes narrowing with determination. This is the reason she was born! The thing she is meant to fight, as a Called! Surely she can beat this thing!

Pffft, of course she can! She remember how Ori and Sein kept talking during story time about slimes, how they’re the underlings of underlings of Decay’s underlings, and how Sein could pop them like balloons with only a couple of Spirit Flame shots. Surely, with all of her training, that slime will be absolutely no match for her!

With a war cry, the small ram-like spirit charged straight for the tree! After all, how is she going to fight this thing if it’s crawling out of reach? Better bring it down so she can ram it good and proper!

Then she immediately regretted it as her skull collided with the bark of the tree, giving her a rather unfortunate headache. Ouch! She sure hate how her tiny brain keep bouncing all over in her skull when that happens!

Yuki did not have much time to ponder the wisdom of wantonly giving herself further concussions as her plan, unfortunately for her, succeeded. For you see, either due to a general lack of intelligence or perhaps brain damage from ramming her head into hard surfaces all the time, Yuki happen to struggle with the concept of logic and thus used her head only to ram things and eat things instead of thinking. If she had actually used her head to think, she would have predicted easily that what occurred once she rammed that tree would occur. But she didn’t, thus her plan backfired immediately as the slime fell down from the tree just as she had hoped.

Straight on her head.

Yuki thus learnt that Ori had not been lying when he said that letting slimes touch was not a pleasant experience. Apart from how utterly disgusting the sensation was and how it was ruining her fur, the Decay in the thing’s body acting as powerful acid and immediately begun to eat through her face. That was, needless to say, amazing painful. The small Called let out a scream of pure agony and then tried to throw the slime off of her face before it could finish melting off her face.

The good news were, it worked. The bad news were, she grabbed the thing with her bare hands and thus burnt her her sensitive paws. Now bald, her entire head’s fur gone from the acid, Yuki collapsed and begun to trash about, her hands feeling like they were on fire. Her eyes were hurting! Hurting! She couldn’t hope her eyes! Everything was agony! How did Ori manage, if that happened to him all the time?!

No! If Ori can do this, then she can! Yuki tried to open her eyes and immediately regretted it. In spite of the darkness of the night, every single bit of light felt blinding beyond understanding, like someone was plunging sharp icicles into her eye sockets. She trashed about some more in pain.

… is that slime laughing at her?

Of course, the slime was not laughing. Being a lowly Decay slime, it was merely slithering all over the place, confused as to what had occured and feeling aggressive toward the living spirit right next to it. But Yuki’s pride had been injured just as much as her body and she wouldn’t let this stand!

Yuki rose to her hooves and immediately, set out to punish the monster for its defiance!

A slight flaw with her plan to ram it became obvious as she quickly realized that as short as she was, she was still significantly taller than the slime. Thus she not only failed to lower herself enough to hit it but only succeeded in tripping over it.

Which means that she ended up with one of her legs immersed into Decay acid.

Yuki screamed as she discovered whole new worlds of pain, hopping away on one foot and holding into her now furless leg, her flesh red and raw from her newly acquired acid burns.

For all that this Decay slime was the lowliest of Decay’s children, it was handily defeating her. A fact that allowed Yuki to get a hold of herself, rage gripping her. Seriously, who ever heard of a spirit dying to a slime of all things?! She would not allow this stupid thing get the best out of her!

Unfortunately for her, despite lacking a nervous system, the slime was clearly smarter than her as it continued its, so far successful, method of defeating her. Which was to do nothing and just let the deeply, deeply stupid ram-like spirit defeat herself.

Case in point: Yuki reared up and then tried to kick the thing as hard as she could, having still not learnt that Decay monsters tend to be made of acid and that touching them with your bare limbs is a profoundly stupid idea.

Having already burnt her leg pretty badly, Yuki finally succeeded in giving herself a true injury to her leg. A high-pitched wail of pain escaped her throat as she collapsed, gripping her partially dissolved leg. Her leg now looked akin to a partially eaten cooked lamb leg, the bone underneath visible, blood oozing and covering her hands as she gripped her agonizing, crippled limb.

Meanwhile, Yuki’s constant attempts at harming the poor Decay slime, while unsuccessful in actually harming it, finally managed to attract its attention. Acting accordingly with its central directive as a child of Decay, it identified Yuki as an alive spirit and immediately got to work at making her a non-alive spirit.

The Decay within gathered and crystalized, causing large and rather intimidating spines to stick out of its body. Yuki briefly paused her lamentations as to look in the slime’s direction.

“Oh.” she said, as she saw the spines, remembering all too well the stories Ori told about these.

Normally, a Decay slime’s projectiles were a rather trivial thing for a spirit to avoid. Lacking much in the way of muscles, slimes could only fire their spines so far and so fast after all. Of course, that was given a spirit had a full set of functional legs and could dodge, something Yuki lacked at the moment.

A spread shot of spines was therefore fired straight toward Yuki. Decay slimes being the least threatening and competent of Decay’s children, the slime somehow managed to miss Yuki at point blank range with half of its shots. Unfortunately for our rather dim witted heroine, the other half of its shots hit their mark.

Thankfully, the two spines didn’t hit anything important. It wasn’t like Yuki used her brain or her heart-Light much, after all.

The last thing that went through Yuki’s mind, beside the spines, was the realization that maybe some kind of weapon would have helped her case.

_ “Just before her Light left for the Forest beyond Death, Yuki marveled as the slime proceeded to consume her body and somehow, despite being much smaller than her, managed to do it. _

_ “Wow! Those things can consume more than fifteen times their mass in acid! Neat!” _

  
  


**A daring (but unsuccessful) rescue!**

Yuki slightly peered over and heard dirt crumbling beneath her. She was ready to run away when she saw a blur of brown fur! She immediately reached down and grabbed them by the tail, earning a sharp tip from them. She gritted her teeth as she felt her hooves dig into the ground. Yuki heard them panic as they noticed the bed of razor vines beneath them.

“Calm down!” She shouted, “Now listen to me! If you want to live, do what I say.”

“You’re a Called! I know what they’re like!”

“Shut up already! I can easily let you fall right now, but I’m not going to! How do you even know I am Called?”

“You’re just going to use me to lead you to wisps!”

“What are you talking about? I’m not looking for wisps! I just need help finding my friends“ Yuki suddenly yelped as she felt the ground give away, and flinched as she nearly lost her grip on the moki’s tail.

“Ok, ok! I’ll help you then! Just help me up for Kwolok’s sake!”

Yuki heaved as she tried to drag the moki. Unfortunately, while she had her heart-Light in the right place, she wasn’t exactly a powerhouse just yet. Meanwhile, the moki was fully grown and was quite heavy. It didn’t help that she had a rather poor grip on them, holding them by the tail.

It was about as painful as it looked and the moki’s wails were just as much due to panic as they were to pain. Worse yet, Yuki could feel her hands slipping, sliding up the fur and lessening her grip further.

“Don’t drop me! Please don’t drop me! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die…”

Despair begun to slip into the moki’s voice as the tiny spirit struggled more and more. Her arms were hurting, straining from the effort. She kept trying to drag them up but her strength alone wasn’t managing it. Her hooves begun to slid on her own as the weight of the moki dragged her.

Then, her heart-Light in her chest momentarily stopped as she found herself getting a very good look at the razor vines below. A good look that was possible due to the fact that her attempts at helping the moki up were only succeeding in dragging her closer and closer to the edge.

“Please help me! Please! Please!” The moki’s composure broke. Panic fully gripped them as they flailed, desperate to get to safety.

It occurred to Yuki that she wasn’t going to succeed. Her hooves slid almost to the edge. She stood by the edge of the cliff, screaming as she almost felt her arms being torn off from trying to help the moki up, only succeeding in preventing their fall.

Yet she saw all too clearly the razor vines at the bottom. She didn’t need to be told what would happen if that unfortunate moki was left to fall in. She could see all too clearly the wicked edges, the blade-like leaves, the giant spikes, the way the wind and the rain moved the vines and leaves, like a plant version of a meat grinder.

If she dropped that moki, they would die. She would let someone die. And she would see them die before her very eyes.

She refused. She tried to pour her Light, somehow, into her grip. She refused to let go! She is not abandoning an innocent to die! She… she don’t want to see someone die. She don’t…

Then suddenly, she felt as if she was floating. It was the worst feeling she had ever felt. And she knew, without a single shred of doubt, that the ground had given away. The moki screamed. So did she, tears filling her eyes as she realized the moki was going to die.

Then, at that singular moment, an even worse realization hit her.

She is going to die as well.

Her scream of denial grew tenfold as terror and despair gripped her, her heart-Light slammed painfully into her chest as the razor vines reached out to her.

**_SCRLUNCH SCRLUNCH_ **

She wanted to scream. She couldn’t. She couldn’t think or even start to consider what had happened. All she could think was of the intense pain in every single part of her body. A whimpering bleat escaped her lips as tears poured from her eye.

A pained gurgling wheeze came from right next to her and the full reality of the situation hit her. Somehow, her left half of her vision was nothing but a crimson, sticky liquid. Her mind swam, darkness closing around the edges. A headache unlike anything she had ever felt was paralyzing her and she felt her chest, belly, right leg, and tail hurting so much. It was like a stabbing pain through her back. As she reached out with a trembling hand for her own face, hot tears poured from her remaining eye as her state registered.

A long spike was piercing through her skull, sticking through her left eye. Her left eye no longer existed. A lethal injury, on its own.

Looking down, three spikes dripped with blood, her own. Crimson pooled on her fur as the spikes had impaled her near her heart-Light, through her belly, and through one of her legs. And right next was…

The moki stared back at her, their glassy, dead eyes filled with fear, pain, and tears. At first, she thought they were dead… but then, a second, pain-filled whimper escaped them and she realized they were still alive, as she was. And just as impaled.

A gust of wind made things worse and Yuki discovered all new levels of pain. The razor leaves, pushed by the wind, raked her back. She couldn’t keep it in. She screamed as the blade-like leaves sliced open brand new wounds on her back, slicing open her right arm and cutting off one of her left hand’s fingers right off.

The screaming sobs that came from the moki she had failed to save only made it worse. She doesn’t want to die. She doesn’t want to be a tree. She don’t want that moki to die either.

“I… I…” She tried to speak but she couldn’t, her mouth filling with blood, pouring out uncontrollably. “I… don’t wanna be a tree.”

Yuki became painfully aware that she was still a kid. Sometimes, she had pondered why Ori woke up screaming. Why he froze with nightmares even when awake. As she found herself with the Forest beyond Death beckoning, she understood that Ori had, if anything, held back on descriptions of how much dying sucks.

Breathing became more and more difficult. In spite of the pain not lessening, she felt unbelievable exhaustion grip her. She became acutely aware that her entire body was drenched in blood and that with the way the leaves had effectively sliced her apart, a deep crimson pond at formed below as spirit and moki blood mixed together.

Yuki had never really given thought to the Forest beyond Death. As the world simultaneously so blindingly bright and yet so impossibly dark, she couldn’t help but wonder.

Kiinae, mom, dad, Zion… will they forgive her for being a failure? She couldn’t find Kali, Ori, or Ku. She couldn’t even help a single moki. All of her training… and Decay claimed her Light effortlessly.

And then, with one final sigh, Zion ended her suffering and the moki’s. And then they knew nothing, the Forest beyond Death calling to them.

_ “As a rookie Called, Yuki didn’t have much leverage in the world. She should have reached out and asked for cooperation in furthering her career!” _

  
  


**Niwen speedrun any %**

The last thing Kali remembered, before the wind kicked up and sent her head-over-heels like a hapless leaf, was the look in Yuki’s eyes when the ram-spirit slipped from her grasp. Everything after that was a panicked blur of trying to flap her wings and reorient herself, of flailing around to grab at something - anything! - when that didn’t work, and the sharp pain that washed over when she finally crashed into something.

She didn’t know if the blow had stunned her or knocked her out. From one moment to the next, she found herself clinging for dear life against something that shook and wavered in the wind, fighting to breathe with the wind knocked right out of her. The pounding ache in her head made every movement outright dizzying. But with every gust, she tightened her grip and flattened her tail, waiting for the moment that she could regain her bearings.

Breathe, just breathe. Let the frantic heartbeat settle.

The owlish spirit lifted her head and opened her eyes, only to flinch as she found herself squinting against a torrent of rain. What little she could make out through the downpour and the dimness was hidden away behind swaying leaves; she had landed right in the branches of a tree, amidst a forested canopy. The storm seemed to have died down a tiny bit and while she was scared, well, the sooner she was up there, the sooner she could find her friends.

Wait…

Kali paused briefly. The forest is silent.

Didn’t Ori and Sein keep bringing up that if the forest is ever silent, you should get cautious immediately? That a forest is never truly silent unless… unless… unless for some reason about bad things?

Well, the sooner she is up there, the sooner she can find her friends and get out of this creepy place!

The half-owl spirit spread her wings wide and then, pushed against the heavy air. In spite of the rain, she was pleased to find that the storm had significantly died down. Nice! This means it’s easier to see! She hovered in place, basking in the soft light that her body emitted. This is a good thing! Yuki, Ori, and Ku will be able to see her coming by looking up and seeing the ball of light in the sky! Excellent!

… huh?

What’s that?

Kali’s thoughts were interrupted by sudden- **PAIN** as a green cannonball of green acid slammed violently into her chest. The weapon-grade acid projectile tore right through her feathers and soft flesh, dissolving much of her chest.

All around the forest, living artillery Decay toads gathered their baleful acid in their mouths and then, spat their projectiles straight toward the obvious, easy to hit target in the skies. Being designed for long-range warfare, each of the toads had an easy time nailing the spirit.

Ori and Sein had spoken extensively of the horror that was Decay toads during story time. Those were among Decay’s elite monsters, capable of landing hits on spirits from truly impressive distances. Their acid cannonballs were not just fast and accurate but were also incredibly destructive, capable of reducing even a Life Cells-reinforced spirit to a half-liquefied, Ancestral Tree-sprouting corpse in a couple of shots.

Kali didn’t stand a chance. Even if the cannonball projectiles hadn’t been made of acid, the sheer violence and velocity of the attacks would have been enough to shatter her bones and reduce her to a broken heap. The acid, in her case, was merely insult to injury, adding extra pain to what was already a series of lethal hits.

As her broken body fell from the skies, Kali suddenly remembered what Ori had stressed during story time. If every animal in the forest goes silent, it’s because something is scaring them.

In short, she had been a fool and ignored the obvious warning signs.

She didn’t really think on that much though. Mostly because she was too busy being in pain and screaming.

As Kali’s broken body fell back into the canopy of trees, jagged, twisted withered tree branches and hard stones reached out to stop her ceaseless descent into the darkness, cutting short her life in the process.

_ “That was really bold, flying up there all glowing and obvious. That was really foolish, too.” _

  
  


**Hard work hardly works!**

It was oddly quiet as the trio made their way towards the village. It was almost as if the earth itself was holding its breath, afraid to even make a sound. For what, though? There was nothing to be afraid of. Silence can be good, right? The rain had slowed to barely a drizzle by the time they had approached the outermost huts.

Then they heard distant rumbling. The rain had stopped, why would it begin so quickly? Mochi froze for a second, and Yuki’s ears pinned themselves back. Those weren’t rumbles. Kali jumped and flapped towards one of the straw and wooden huts. She got a better view of the village’s center. The rumbling wasn’t a sign of another rainstorm.

A giant bug with armor that was too big for its head was just finishing demolishing another hut. She saw a few Mokis run from the destruction. All their hearts stopped when a crying child was heard.

“My baby!” A mother Moki could be heard.

Yuki didn’t hesitate in running towards the destruction. Kali took to the skies and looked over the destruction. “There!” She shouted above Yuki, pointing towards a pile of rubble.

Yuki dove into the rubble and lifted wooden beam after beam, sweating and groaning as she thrown each one. Those things were heavier than they looked! She saw a small bundle of shivering fur, clutching onto a small Spirit-like doll. “H-Hey.” She whispered, hoping it would reach despite the thundering thumps outside. “You’re gonna be ok! I’m Yuki, what’s-“ She looked up as the growls became louder. Yuki threw herself on top of the child as a shield and braced herself.

It was about at that time that a tiny detail came back to haunt Yuki. Yes, training is not always a fun activity but Kiinae and later Sein had both stressed that it was important to keep in shape. A fact that Ori too had stressed upon, lamenting to her how he himself wish he had spent more time keeping in shape and less time scarfing down food alongside Naru when she was raising him.

In this particular timeline, Yuki had not listened to them and had sneaked away from training many, many times. She had also not watched her diet enough, following Naru one too many times in her feeding frenzies. The cumulative effect of all of this was that in this particular timeline, Yuki was unfortunately actually truly as chubby as she looked, with her belly’s significant curve being legitimately the result of an excess of fat rather than just fluff.

Most importantly, Yuki’s arms and upper body were just a bit weaker in this timeline.

Thus, as the rubble came down, Yuki would find that fat was rather less useful than muscle at trying to keep a giant pile of wood and straw from crushing you. The rubble easily overcame her rotund, obese physique and forced her down. The ram-like spirit barely had the time to let out a small squeak before the rubble’s weight proceeded to press her into the ground like a bug under a heel.

As the crumbling hut finally finished smashing down upon her frame, Yuki found herself with her body redimensioned as to look like those wonderfully colorful mosaics that can be commonly found on a wall after the application of a flyswatter to a fly. The pile of rubble also created a convenient hill for her Ancestral Tree to sprout from. Cool.

_ “Maybe if Yuki had eaten less donuts during her training, she might have made it.” _

  
  


**Kali & the red shirt**

Yuki picked up the child and let them cling onto her chest fur. She knocked aside what rubble she could move and scrambled out of the ruins. She quickly gave the child to Mochi, who was just catching up with the commotion.

“Take the child to their parents! We’ll distract that monster!”

“Are you crazy? No spirit ever faced the Hornbug!”

“Shut up, and get everyone out of here!”

Yuki raced back to where she last saw the Hornbug, and followed the sounds of Kali’s screeches. “Kali, lead it the other way!” She shouted, “Keep it distracted!” Yuki sighed in relief as the owlish spirit lead the beast away from the area she had her eyes on. There she saw a frog person trapped under the rubble, surrounded by Moki who were trying to lift it up.

“It’s distracted now. Escape while you can…” The frog lady’s voice trailed off as she noticed Yuki approaching her. “That means you too, child.”

She shook her head before helping the Moki lift wooden beams that trapped the lady. Yuki helped her get on her feet, despite some of the Moki shifting away from the spirit. She grunted in frustration, “I’m trying to help her! Kali can’t keep the monster distracted forever! MOVE!” She yelled.

The Moki scrambled to help the frog lady get away from the rubble. Yuki felt the woman look at her. Was that a hint of sadness in her eyes? In the heat of the moment, she couldn’t tell. She could still hear the rumbles and snorts of the Hornbug. It stopped for a second...before she heard a loud thud.

“Oh Kiinae, no!” Yuki breathed before dashing off to the sound’s direction. Did it die? What about Kali? She couldn’t lose her now! They just reunited! Ori and Ku were still out there! She can’t search for them alone!

...It can  _ jump _ ?

She couldn’t believe her eyes as she saw the decay-ridden beetle jump into the air. Kali was high above it, dodging its every move. Something had to be done about the monster, but what? Decay had rotted its brain, there was no way she could try to make peace with-

_ Smack! _

Yuki froze in horror as the monster, at the peak of its jump, caught Kali with its horn. Kali looked shocked, barely comprehending what had happened. Then the monster landed, swung Kali right under its legs, and proceeded to jump up and down repeatedly on Kali’s face. Literally.

Yuki just stood here, jaw dropped.

Kali’s right leg twitched. Then a dark blue Ancestral Tree sprout sprung her from her back.

_ “Thank you for playing Ori & the Will of the Wisps! You briefly glance around the room to see if anybody has seen you blow it.” _

  
  


**Yuki the Brave**

Yuki picked up the child and let them cling onto her chest fur. She knocked aside what rubble she could move and scrambled out of the ruins. She quickly gave the child to Mochi, who was just catching up with the commotion.

“Take the child to their parents! We’ll distract that monster!”

“Are you crazy? No spirit ever faced the Hornbug!”

“Shut up, and get everyone out of here!”

Yuki raced back to where she last saw the Hornbug, and followed the sounds of Kali’s screeches. “Kali, lead it the other way!” She shouted, “Keep it distracted!” Yuki sighed in relief as the owlish spirit lead the beast away from the area she had her eyes on. There she saw a frog person trapped under the rubble, surrounded by Moki who were trying to lift it up.

“It’s distracted now. Escape while you can…” The frog lady’s voice trailed off as she noticed Yuki approaching her. “That means you too, child.”

She shook her head before helping the Moki lift wooden beams that trapped the lady. Yuki helped her get on her feet, despite some of the Moki shifting away from the spirit. She grunted in frustration, “I’m trying to help her! Kali can’t keep the monster distracted forever! MOVE!” She yelled.

The Moki scrambled to help the frog lady get away from the rubble. Yuki felt the woman look at her. Was that a hint of sadness in her eyes? In the heat of the moment, she couldn’t tell. She could still hear the rumbles and snorts of the Hornbug. It stopped for a second...before she heard a loud thud.

“Oh Kiinae, no!” Yuki breathed before dashing off to the sound’s direction. Did it die? What about Kali? She couldn’t lose her now! They just reunited! Ori and Ku were still out there! She can’t search for them alone!

...It can  _ jump _ ?

She couldn’t believe her eyes as she saw the decay-ridden beetle jump into the air. Kali was high above it, dodging its every move. Something had to be done about the monster, but what? Decay had rotted its brain, there was no way she could try to make peace with it. The monsters Ori had once faced had similar mindsets: kill, kill, and kill. So with a deep breath, she prepared to fight fire with fire.

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Yuki screamed. She suppressed a bleat when it suddenly turned to her, its yellow eyes staring at her with hate. What was she supposed to do?! It’s going straight for her!

Yuki gripped her fear and stood fast. She can’t let this thing intimidate her! If Ori could handle Kuro, then she can handle this thing!

“I’m not scared of you, you mean thing! Bring it on! I can ta-... oh.”

Yuki then realized how utterly gigantic the monster was as it closed the distance between herself and itself, towering many, many times her height over her. Yuki suddenly became keenly aware of her place and role in the food chain.

“... may I help you?” She bleated softly, utterly and completely terrified.

With a roar, the monstrous oversized insect proceeded to gore her, plunging its horn straight into her chest and then hurling her under its own body. Then, it repeatedly slammed its right front leg straight into her body, again and again.

Yuki now bears the approximative dimensions of a manhole cover.

_ “Yuki once heard a saying along the lines of ‘Quit while you’re ahead’. But Yuki ain’t no quitter!” _

  
  


**Fainting goat jumping!**

With the thundering Hornbug behind them, Kali and Yuki traced back their steps to the dark woods. It wasn’t deterred by the dead trees, occasionally trying to knock them from the air by jumping after then. Luckily for them, it didn’t seem as smart, as when it trampled on razor vines it kept running. A trail of its blood marked the path of its rampage.

“Keep it distracted, and drop me off here!” Yuki yelled as they approached an untouched tree.

Kali hesitantly let her go, and the ram-spirit grabbed onto a thick branch. It wasn’t a spear, but it will have to do. She jumped on it several times. Yuki pounded her hooves onto it until she heard a satisfying crack. That’s it! Just one more and-

_ CRACK _

That wasn’t her doing!

Yuki looked down and saw the Hornbug ramming it’s head onto the tree. Kali was desperately shredding her talons across its backside, but it didn’t even seem to flinch! She jumped down to a lower branch and grabbed the one she weakened. She helped when her balance suddenly shifted and her grip on the branch above her nearly broke. She felt the wood splinter as the tree fell.

No! She refused to fall with it as well! She swished her tail in order to gain back some balance. Yuki gritted her teeth as she ran down the trunk. This was a stupid idea, she thought to herself. She couldn’t quite see where she was going. The flying leaves slapped against her face.

In another timeline, Yuki would be incredibly lucky and succeed, finding not giant monster blocking her path. Unfortunately for her, in this one, she would find it standing straight in her way. Letting out a small yip of surprise, the ram-like spirit stopped in her tracks, avoiding being impaled and squished!

Unfortunately, this also meant that she was still on top of the tree as it finished breaking and toppling over. All of a sudden, Yuki found herself with nothing under her hooves. Suddenly realizing what it meant, she flailed and attempted to lift herself up, grabbing into the tree and attempting to run up it, as to make it back to the ledge.

Against all odds, the small spirit managed to run up the tree in a way that would surely make any ninja watching the scene proud (not that ninjas exist within this world… to anybody’s knowledge, anyway)! However, as she reached the peak and leaped off the tree, she found that the cliff was still several meters above her while she was completely out of tree to run up to. Bummer.

Finding herself with nothing to prevent the urging of gravity from having its way with her tiny, chubby feminine form, Yuki found herself sucked all the way down to the bottom of the ravine.

Yuki screamed in pure terror and despair as she found herself falling straight down. She fell for quite a while and then, a little while, her moving body came into contact with the unmoving ground below.

**_SPLAAAAAAT!!!_ **

Due to the unyielding nature of solid ground especially when struck at the velocity of a speeding car, Yuki found herself half-buried into the soil. On top of being rather humiliating, the small ram-like spirit was unpleasantly surprised to find that the impact caused more than enough damage to pulverize her head and much of her upper body.

Who ever heard of a spirit without a head? Nobody, that’s who! Being already essentially planted into the ground anyway, her left leg twitching and her heart-Light reduced to powder inside her crushed rib cage, Yuki decided now was an excellent moment to give up the ghost and sprout into a tree.

_ “As Yuki hit the ground, she was forcefully reminded that it isn’t the fall that kill you, it’s the sudden stop at the end.” _

  
  


**The price of arrogance**

Yuki saw a pit ahead. Maybe...just maybe...she could clear it, and it will fall...She sent a silent prayer to not only Kiinae, but of the Great Zion and Mother Moon. The bellowing grew louder, as if responding to great joy to the weakening of her muscles. Why is she now feeling hot stinging pinpricks all over her legs?

“I don’t want to become a tree…!” Yuki leapt from the edge and still yet, she felt the earth crumble underneath her. She heard the Hornbug roar as it tumbled into the pit. She felt the ground finally hit her as she stumbled onto the other side.

...She took a look behind her. The beast was feebly trying to climb out, but with every move, the razor vines dug deeper into its underside. Was that a hint of helplessness she saw in its eyes for a fleeting second? Did she hear barely a whisper of a whine?...No, she must have been hearing things...it was a monster, and it got what it was coming...

Then it registered to her that she had just managed to fool this thing into defeating itself. She had managed her first real victory against Decay! And not just that but her victory was against a really huge, really powerful monster!

Her heart-Light pulsated with pride! She puffed up her chest and confidently marched up to the edge of the pit, pointing at the monster!

“AH! You’ve been had! Yeah! Thought you’d get my Light, you stupid thing? Nah! No Light for you!” She put a hand on her chest and grinned proudly. “This female is gonna remain mobile and non-sprouting.”

“Who’s afraid of the big bad bug? Not me! Not so scary anymore, aren’t you! Haha!” Yes, it felt really good after all of the scares it had given her and all of the bad things it had done and people it had hurt. “You’ve beaten by me! Haha!”

Nearby, Kali landed nearby. At first, the half-owl spirit child was confused but then as she looked in, she was briefly shocked by the sight. Then, it registered that they had managed to get it to land itself into razor vines.

With a grin, Kali pointed at the hornbug. “You big doofus! You fell into your own razor vines! You’re a dumb, dumb monster!”

“Light: one! Decay: zerooooooo!” Yuki added, taunting the thing further.

… huh? Is it face changing color? Red? Is it normal for a monster’s face to turn red? Now that she think about it, it’s not trashing and screaming anymore in pain. It’s kind of… just glaring?

“You’ve been owned! Owned!” Kali went, still laughing at the thing.

Yuki shrugged internally. Not like that thing can hurt them anymore! “It wasn’t that hard! Ori was right, monsters are dumb! You just have to put yourself next to a hazard, you jump at the last second, and they charge right in! They’re idiots. Hahaha!”

“Yep! Dum dum dumb idiots!”

The monster’s face was definitely red. It let out a roar of rage and then, swung its horn. Yuki easily sidestepped the attack and then stuck out her tongue at the thing.

“You missed you missed you missed!”

The monster was so enraged Yuki swore she saw steam erupt from the sides of its head. It then took a second swing.

“Pffft! You didn’t even try! You just struck the side of the pit.” Yuki grinned, brushing herself off a bit. What an idiot! It must-

**_BRRRRROM!!_ **

Then the ground crumbled under her hooves and Kali’s own feet.

Oh. That was what the monster was doing.

Both Yuki and Kali had often asked Ori if razor vines were truly that bad. As Yuki found herself with giant spikes through her chest, legs, and belly while Kali found herself entangled into blade-like leaves that sliced off many of her fingers and bit deep into her back and behind, they discovered that if anything, Ori had understated how much razor vines sucked.

It also, conveniently, brought them within stomping range of the monster.

It then roared something along the lines of “If I go down, I am taking you down with me!” in the tongue of the children of Decay before bringing both of its front legs up and then slamming them straight upon the middle of each spirit’s frame.

Even weakened by death, the giant monster still wielded more than enough strength to snap both of them in two, a fact demonstrated as Yuki suddenly felt her sudden loss of weight as her stomach and several vertebraes slid out of her bisected frame.

Neither really had time to process the sheer agony of their final moments as the sheer shock and brutality of their newfound injuries just caused their brains to completely give up and stop working right there and then. A moment later, both of their Lights shrugged and decided that now was as good as any to try and find out if Ancestral Tree sprouts can coexist with Decay razor vines.

_ “A wise warrior always ensure that his foe is actually down before he start boasting of his victory. Yuki and Kali don’t look very wise.” _


End file.
